We love this analysis of Al Pacino’s career and give our sincerest thanks to writer-researcher Stephen Follows for sharing not only his insight but his fascinating methodology. (Which is so unlike Mr. Pacino’s, erm, method of managing his acting career.)
Which famous actors have a worse career than Al Pacino?
by Stephen Follows
In an interview last week, Al Pacino revealed that he enjoys starring in bad movies as he views it as a challenge to improve them to the point of mediocrity.
As Al put it…
Sometimes they offer you money to do something that’s not adequate. And you talk yourself into it. And somewhere within you, you know that this thing is gonna be a lemon. But then, when it comes full circle, and you see it, you say, “Oh, no. I’m gonna make this better.” And you spend a lot of time and you’re doing all these things, and you say, “If I can just get this to be a mediocre film,” and you get excited by that. It’s an impulse that I’ve got to just put away now.
I thought it would be fun to take a quick look at this acting strategy to see whether it shows up in the data. By looking at the Metascore (i.e. the average rating given by top critics, expressed as a figure out of 100) for all the movies in an actor’s career, we can track whether they are getting roles in better or worse films.
Not only that, we can see how Pacino’s career trajectory compares to that of other famous actors.
What does it mean to ‘Pacino’ one’s career?
As the chart below clearly shows, the average critic rating for Al Pacino movies has been reducing over time….